Contact! Britain!: A Woman Ferry Pilot’s Story During WWII in England

In 1942, twenty-three-year-old Nancy Jane Miller joined a group of American women hand-picked by renowned aviatrix, Jacqueline Cochran, to volunteer as pilots with the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). The ATA, which included men and women pilots from many countries, had been formed to ferry military aircraft from British factories to front-line operational squadrons and would become Cochran’s inspiration for the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), which served on American soil. This is Miller’s account of those years, written as a message to her father in the months between her demobilization and her voyage home in 1945. It is a description of her experiences flying 50 different kinds of military aircraft in a country under siege-without instruments and in all kinds of weather, armed only with minimal checkouts, handling notes for the planes, and plenty of pluck. It is also an American woman’s view of British life during the war, the gradual buildup to D-Day, and ultimate victory in Europe. It is a vivid picture of what it meant to contribute to the war effort and, above all, what it means to fly